The US Air Force will begin a court-martial in January in the case of a nuclear missile launch officer charged with drug use and obstructing justice following a criminal probe that exposed an exam-cheating scandal involving nearly 100 nuke officers.

According to the Associated Press, Second Lt. Nicole Dalmazzi of
the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana is
believed to be the first nuclear launch officer, or missileer,
charged amid the drug investigation that was made public last
January on the same
day US Department of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel visited
Malmstrom, one of three nuclear-missile land bases in the
country.

Dalmazzi was charged with illegal drug use and obstructing a
probe by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations for
dyeing her hair to "alter the results of potential hair-follicle
drug tests," said Josh Aycock, a spokesman at Malmstrom,
according to AP. Her court-martial will begin on Jan. 21.

Missileers operate Minuteman 3 missiles, which are armed with
nuclear warheads controlled by two missileers on duty during
rotating shifts in an underground launch center. AP was unable to
reach her for comment.

Dalmazzi’s fellow missileers at Malmstrom oversee 150 of the Air
Force’s 450 Minuteman 3 ICBMs. Minot Air Force Base in North
Dakota and F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming each operate 150
ICBMs as well.

Findings of illegal drug use among missileers and allegations of
a widespread
exam-cheating scandal involving several Air Force missile
crew members began a cascade of discouraging revelations
regarding the nuclear missile force in the US.

The Navy’s nuclear force, which maintains nuclear-armed
submarines, has also faced an
exam-cheating scandal among its nuclear reactor training
instructors. And in the past two years, Air Force units charged
with keeping up nuclear arsenals have also failed safety and
security inspections and twice left
open blast doors that protect underground launch control
centers at two different bases - once while crew members slept.

In late 2013, a RAND Corp. review found signs of
“burnout” and high levels of stress and misconduct,
including domestic violence, among missile launch crews and
missile security forces, service members in charge of America’s
intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

The myriad embarrassments among nuclear force crews led Sec.
Hagel to announce
plans last month that would reform nuclear management and
operations. Though Hagel said he would resign from his position
just ten days later, Air Force officials say the protocol
overhaul will continue apace, AP reported.

The Air Force’s investigation into missileer drug use regards
three officers at Malmstrom and one at F.E. Warren. Results of
the Air Force findings have not been released publicly.

Air Force investigators’ probe of illegal drug use began in
August 2013, when the cellphones of two airmen at Edwards Air
Force Base in California were found to contain text messages to
or from 11 other Air Force officers at other air bases. The
messages mentioned "specific illegal drug use that included
synthetic drugs, ecstasy and amphetamines," according to an
investigation report released in March.

The report originally began over exam-cheating allegations, but
eventually found evidence of missileer drug use, which spawned a
separate probe by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

Two of the 11 officers were stationed at Malmstrom. Both were
found to have used personal cellphones to share answers of a
frequently-taken missileer proficiency test as well as to discuss
illegal drug activity.

The Air Force found that exam cheating occurred only at
Malmstrom. Three officers there suspected of illegal drug
activity were also involved in the exam scandal.

"We've made a big point about accountability," Air Force
Secretary Deborah Lee James told AP on Tuesday of the completed
OSI criminal probe. "Standards are standards, and when people
fail in integrity, service and excellence there are appropriate
accountability measures. We've made a big point of that and
that's true across the Air Force and it has been, of course,
particularly true this past year in the ICBM community."